RAS Talk

Research scientist, John Davidson, and The Freshwater Institute team are conducting some of the leading research around understanding off-flavour in recirculating aquaculture systems. In this episode, he shares his latest findings with co-hosts Jean Ko Din and Justin Henry. They talk about how conversations around off-flavour in the industry have changed over time.

Vertical Oceans is a unique recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) for shrimp because it touts itself to be modular, has zero discharge and is almost 94 per cent automated by a complex algorithm. Co-founder and chief executive, John Diener, talks about how he's harnessing his team's expertise in data science and bioinformatics to solve traditional shrimp farming's environmental challenges. 

Florida is home to both red drum fish and red mangroves. Megan Sorby, CEO and founder of Pine Island Redfish, has a vision to sustainably farm both in her new 150-acre RAS project. She sits down with Jean Ko Din and Justin Henry about her experience finding an aquaculture community in the state and her hopes to bring more RAS innovation to the industry.

Viking Aqua wants to build the "next generation RAS for Atlantic salmon," planning a 33,000-ton facility in Skipavika, Norway. In this episode, Borghild Hillestad shares how she plays a key role as director of fish welfare in the early design/engineering phase. She also shares the company's plans to establish a Fish Welfare Index that will set parameters for the facility’s artificial intelligence...

Although reconstruction in the area is over, Fukushima continues to live with the aftermath of the 2011 nuclear accident and its impact on its reputation. Initial  ARK Inc. prototypes became a new way to revitalize the small Japanese town's seafood industry. Co-founder Yosuke Kurihara offers a unique take on recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) technology with a micro-scale unit that he ho...

Sara Rademaker is the founder and CEO of American Unagi, a glass eel recirculating aquaculture farm in Maine. She shares the journey of how she started the company from a small RAS system in the basement of her home, to an incubator startup, to now a commercial-scale farm to grow eel domestically.

Hatchery International  hosted its first  World Trout Culture Summit  on Oct. 18, 2023. The virtual event gathered experts across the aquaculture industry to talk about environmentally sustainable trout culture and production. In this special episode of RAS Talk, we share the live recording from a panel of trout RAS experts to talk about the benefits and challenges of recirculating...

This episode was recorded about a month after The Center for Responsible Seafood (TCRS) hosted its inaugural Shrimp Summit (July 24-26, 2023) at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. TCRS President George Chamberlain shares his reflections on the global shrimp industry and how recirculating aquaculture technology can play a role in its future.

Sustainable Blue has captured Washington State's interest for its zero wastewater discharge system for Atlantic salmon. David Roberts, chief sustainability officer, talks about the origins of its first facility in Nova Scotia, Canada and hints at the company's plans for a new facility in the United States. Roberts says that sustainability must be incorporated into all aspects of a recirculating aq...

Just 20 mins. from downtown Los Angeles, Steve Sutton established an indoor shrimp RAS farm with a mission to grow clean shrimp products for the U.S. market. In this episode, Steve tells the story of how shrimp farming in Thailand informed his vision for TransparentSea to become a sustainable and profitable farming operation in California.

Salmon Evolution is one of the few success stories that the RAS industry can point to and as it looks ahead to the next phase, CEO Trond Håkon Schaug-Pettersen shared some insights that led to the company’s success so far. He talked about harnessing the simplicity of a partial reuse system, bringing the lessons of Phase One to its next expansions and his confidence in the company’s future.

The RAS industry is not for the faint of heart. The purpose of this “Lessons learned” keynote is to identify those challenges we are facing right now and sharing experiences of how to solve these problems. At RASTECH 2023, we wanted to talk about the mistakes and the setbacks, but always in the spirit of learning how to progress and develop from them. Panelists: Damien Claire, chief sales and mark...

Rodrigo Mezerhane is the senior project manager at Blue Star Foods in the United States and his latest project is an interesting venture into a unique species in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). Atlantic blue crabs are cannibalistic which makes juvenile survival rates in captivity very low. This project's solution is to capture Atlantic blue crabs from local fishermen and raise the s...

After cultivating his genomics expertise in the United States and in Norway, Woo-Jai Lee returns to his homeland in South Korea to start an olive flounder RAS project in Goheung. Raising olive flounder, a.k.a. Japanese halibut, in a recirculating aquaculture system has its unique challenges. BlueGen founder & CEO Woo-Jai shares the challenges and innovations of building a 1,700 MT/year facilit...

More commercial-size RAS projects are propping up in Japan. In this episode, we get an inside look at one of the largest projects with Dharma Rajeswaran, chief operations officer at Proximar Seafood. He shares about his long history in salmon farming, from traditional net pens in Norway to recirculating aquaculture in Atlantic Sapphire.

It truly takes a village to raise the next generation of recirculating aquaculture farmers. Kevin Hoffman is the instructor and program manager for Onalaska High School’s aquaculture program in Washington State, United States. Through his hands-on program, students learn many practical skills, including feeding, sampling, fish husbandry, construction and maintenance. In this episode, Kevin shares...

Last July, Kingfish Maine was forced to go head-to-head against an anti-aquaculture group that wanted to put a stop to all aquaculture development in Jonesport, Maine, USA. The aquaculture moratorium was put to a vote and local residents rejected the proposal 201 to 91. Now that the road is clear for the company to begin construction, Dianna Fletcher, communications consultant, shares how the comp...

When the island country of Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of its food supply, this new RAS project hopes to be a local solution. Esben Johnsen is the chief executive officer of Singapore RAS. Coming from Norway’s oil and gas industry, he understands the power and possibilities of land-based aquaculture.

Lago Sofia’s chief executive and general manager, Miguel Portus O., shares the company’s philosophy in making the most of all its resources, not just its recirculating water at its Atlantic salmon smolt RAS facility in Chile. For example, the company collects plastics from partner companies to use as materials to build palettes for its facility. They also collect wood from its feed pallets to crea...

Atlantic Sapphire CEO Johan Andreassen called 2021 the company’s “Annus Horribilis.” From losing the chillers in Miami to the devastating fire in Denmark, Atlantic Sapphire made headlines for mass mortalities caused by a chain of unfortunate events. In this episode, Andreassen talks to our co-hosts, Jean Ko Din and Brian Vinci, about lessons learned from last year and how the company plans to move...

Vismar Aqua is a Ukrainian RAS design firm that built the largest RAS shrimp farm in Europe, Merman’s House. When Russia’s invasion forced the farm to close after only four months in operation, the company decided to donate its first batches of shrimp to the Ukrainian army. Founder and chief technology officer, Lubomir Haidamaka, sits down with co-hosts, Jean Ko Din and Brian Vinci, to share his s...

Aquaponics is often described as the combination of recirculating aquaculture with hydroponics. Many favour it as the ultimate circular food production system, utilizing waste from the production of fish to be used as nutrients for the production of plants like leafy greens and tomatoes. In our world today, the aquaponics model is still appealing and is an example of the circular food systems that...

Past RAS Talk episodes have had a particular focus on various salmon and trout species because they’re known to be some of the more ‘established’ aquaculture species in Europe and North America. However, globally, barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass, is an aquaculture-established species. Production is especially established in Australia, where MainStream Aquaculture, said to have the la...

Looking to raise awareness and educate Americans of the benefits of regularly eating seafood to achieve a healthier diet, as well as advocate for the recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) sector and aquaculture industry to achieve an overall more environmentally-friendly and sustainable seafood industry, the Seafood Nutrition Partnership’s (SNP’s) Founder, Linda Cornish, sat down with hosts, Cat...

Public fish hatcheries have a long history in North America, with many culture methods and innovations used in today’s commercial aquaculture industry, first developed at public fish hatcheries. This includes water reuse. While water reuse was initially very basic, as the understanding of fish biology and water quality increased, so did the ways in which water was treated for reuse. Some of the fi...